The Parakeet Panic

In the 1960s, there was a craze in the United States for monk parakeets, an exotic pet often associated with the Polynesian and South American cultures. However, people soon became overwhelmed by the chatter and released the parakeets into the wild. In 1969, a shipping crate at JFK airport broke open, releasing hundreds, if not thousands, of parakeets. This led to fears of overbreeding and the potential for agricultural damage. In response, a campaign was launched by the state of New York to eliminate the parakeet population, involving trapping and killing the birds. However, the campaign was not entirely successful, and today, there are still controlled populations of monk parakeets in New York City.